I Shave My Face and It Made Makeup Application So Much Better

When you shave your hair, it grows back thicker. This is a warning my mom, aunts, and seemingly every other woman in my life told me when I was growing up. Even though it's since been busted as a myth, I've avoided putting any razors near my face for fear I'd grow a full-on beard. Then, the beauty world saw a resurgence of dermaplaning, a treatment where an esthetician uses a small, sharp blade across the surface of your face to remove dead skin cells and vellus hair (aka peach fuzz).

It's not "shaving" in the traditional sense with a razor, where the main goal is hair removal, but rather another form of physical exfoliation (Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor were reportedly fans way back when). Even on hairless parts of your face, the method works wonders sloughing off dead skin cells. While I never had a professional do it for me, I did get introduced to the benefits through the most popular of at-home dermaplaning devices, Dermaflash.

Here's the thing—I have thick hair. And, while that's a blessing atop my head, it's a nuisance on my face. I don't just have peach fuzz, either—it's noticeable enough that when I'd get my eyebrows threaded or waxed the technician performing it would always ask, "upper lip, too?" and when I'd say no, the tech would say, "Are you sure?"

While I'm a firm believer that body hair is a personal choice and if you want to leave yours as is, go 'head girl, I am personally not a fan of my own. My work finds me in front of HD video cameras and close-up photos for beauty stories, so I'm especially self conscious about having a mustache pop up on a zoomed-in shot of me applying lipstick. Because of my busy schedule, regularly heading into the salon for a wax or thread isn't always possible. When I finally got the chance to test out at-home dermaplaning with the Dermaflash 2.0 Luxe, I got hooked and haven't looked back.

I use Dermaflash one or two times a week to get rid of barely-there vellus hair on my cheeks, forehead, and chin. While I was intimidated at first, I quickly got the hang of it: After cleansing and drying skin, you hold the skin taut and, at an angle, feather strokes across the areas you want to target, then moisturize. It doesn't hurt at all. You'll actually be able to see the "dust" coming off your face (gross, but so satisfying). It takes less than five minutes to do my whole face.

While there isn't much of a dramatic before and after to the plain eye (the facial hair is tiny, after all), I do feel a difference. Post-Dermaflash, my skin is smooth as glass and suede-soft to the touch. I notice the effects even more when I apply makeup because it makes everything, especially liquid products like foundation, go on more easily.

A post shared by DERMAFLASH (@dermaflash) on Apr 19, 2018 at 8:24am PDT

Celebrity makeup artist Daniel Martin, who works with Jessica Alba, Elisabeth Moss, and Priyanka Chopra, is also a fan of Dermaflash. He claims that the key benefits of the device are exfoliation. "[It] removes the oldest layer of dead skin cells and unwanted peach fuzz, giving you the perfect canvas for skincare and makeup application. It's literally priming 2.0 with this product!" he says.

Apparently, makeup clings to peach fuzz—which makes it more detectable. "You're also exfoliating away the dead skin cells and surface debris that you don't always get rid of with traditional cleansers," Martin continued.

His advice for first-time face shavers was simple—don't be scared to try it. "They can use it in any direction: Up, down, in, or out, have fun with it! They also shouldn't be afraid that their hair will grow back thicker because women grow vellus hair, which is light–shaving it actually won't make it grow back thicker."

In case you need any more convincing, please direct your eyes to the flawless visage of Janelle Monáe. Her makeup artist Jessica Smalls used the Dermaflash 2.0 Luxe to achieve this baby-smooth look:

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